356 
PENTANDRIA. DIGYNIA. Ulmus, 
Growing to a very large size in Edgbaston Park, near Birmingham. 
(Frequent in the northern part of England and in Scotland. E.) 
T. March—April.* 
U. monta^na. (Leaves doubly serrated, unequal at the base, egg- 
shaped, but taper-pointed; flowers penduncled, five or six cleft; 
fruit round. E.) 
( E. Bot. 1887. E.)— Lob. Ic. ii. 189. Z—Ger. Em. 1481. 3— Park. 1404. 2. 
Bark of the trunk very much cracked, that of the branches smooth. Flow¬ 
ers scentless, from six to fifteen in a corymbus; leaf-buds and flower-buds 
distant. Gough. Clefts of the calyx five, six, and in one instance four 
* (The Wych Elm, (or possibly the Wych Hazel may have been intended in the ancient 
statutes), was once in repute for long-bows. Gilpin describes the Wych Elm as “ more 
picturesque than the other sort, as it hangs more negligently, suspends its flowers on 
longer peduncles and more loosely spread out. The trunk soon divides into wide spreading, 
winged branches, but it seldom rises so high ;” and Phillips observes “ this kind ” (indiscri¬ 
minately Wych Elm and Wych Hazel), “ is hardy enough to climb the steeps aud flourish 
in the remotest highlands of Scotland.” But we know not a better account of this tree 
than that afforded by the Journal of a Naturalist. “ The Wych Elm can occasionally 
assume the appearance of elegance and lightness, and is usually less aspiring and more 
branching than the common Elm. It adventures further north than that tree. It affords 
a tough and valuable wood for the wheeler and millwright; the bark from the young limbs 
is stripped off in long ribands, and often used, especially in Wales, for securing thatch, 
and for various bindings and tyings, to which purpose its flexible and tough nature renders 
it well adapted. Gerard says that arrows were made of this tree before the use of fire¬ 
arms had superseded that truly British weapon. We have no indigenous tree that suffers 
from the advance of the winter season so early as the Wych Elm. Others may manifest its 
approach nearly as soon, but their splendour is augmented by a touch of the frosty air, not 
ruined and denuded like our Elm, whose leaves curl up, become brown, and flutter from 
their sprays, by constitutional mechanism alone, often as early as the middle of September. 
This character of itself marks a difference from the common Elm, which preserves its ver¬ 
dure long after this period, and when its season arrives, is tinged with a deep yellow hue, 
contributing a full share to the splendour of the autumn. 1’he leafless sprays of the Wych 
Elm announce too early the unwelcome termination of our floral year, and its sober rugged 
foliage is scattered at our feet without preparation or a parting smile.” The same observant 
writer states, “ Trees in full foliage have long been noted as great attractors of humidity, 
and a young Wych Elm in full leaf affords a good example of this supposed power; but in 
winter, when trees are perfectly denuded, this faculty of creating moisture about them is 
equally obvious, though not so profusely. That leaves imbibe moisture by one set of 
vessels and discharge it by another is well known; but these imbibings are never dis¬ 
charged in falling drops : but, in the other case, the moisture of the atmosphere becomes 
gradually collected on the surface of the tree till it forms drops. In fact, the tree is no 
attractor but a condenser; and thus the gate of a field, ora stick, or a post, will run down 
with water from a mist driving against it on one side, and be dry on the other. Vid. Ivy. On 
the same principle currents of air will be found under trees in summer, when little is 
perceived in open places. The air in its passage being stopped and condensed against the 
foliage of the tree, accordingly descends along the surface or front, and escapes at the 
bottom, where are no branches or leaves to interrupt its progress. In winter there is little 
to impede the breeze in its course, and it passes through, consequently at that season the air 
under a tree is scarcely more sensibly felt than in the adjoining field.” p. 62. Ac¬ 
cording to Lightfoot, c< the var. most common in Scotland is the Broad-leaved Wych Elm. 
A decoction of the inner bark is an antiscorbutic. The Highlanders make good ropes of 
the same. The timber is hard and tough.” The principal Wych Elm of a group, at Polloc, 
Renfrewshire, (as represented in Strutt’s Sylv. Brit.), measures twelve feet, girt, 88 feet 
in height, and contains 669 feet solid timber. One at Tutbury 16 feet girt: and, accord¬ 
ing to Plot, at Field in Staffordshire is a tree of the same kind 120 feet high, and 25 feet 
in circumference about the middle. E.) 
